kenleewrites in 日本

If you’ve been following me around, you would know that I was in Hokkaido about a month ago. One of the places I visited was Lake Toya 洞爺湖. A volcanic caldera lake about an hour away from Sapporo… maybe more.

I went there for the onsen. It’s quite a popular onsen spot in Hokkaido. A little bit about it from big brother wikipedia.

Lake Tōya (洞爺湖 Tōya-ko) is a volcanic caldera lake in Shikotsu-Toya National Park, Abuta District, Hokkaidō, Japan. The stratovolcano of Mount Usu lies on the southern rim of the caldera. It is a nearly circular lake with 10 kilometers diameter in the east-west direction and 9 kilometers in the north-south direction. The main town is Tōyako Onsen (洞爺湖温泉), on the western shore. The town Tōyako is located on the other side of the lake.
Lake Tōya is said to be the northernmost lake in Japan that never ices, and the second most transparent lake in Japan. Nakano-shima, an island in the middle of the lake, houses the Tōya Lake Forest Museum.
Lake Tōya was called Kimun Tō (Kimun means mountain and Tō means lake) by the Ainu. In the Meiji era, Japanese pioneers named the lake Tōya, which means lakeside in the Ainu language.[citation needed]
The 2008 G8 Summit was held at Lake Tōya and The Windsor Hotel Toya Resort & Spa.

Lots of tour buses = lots of tourists. Not just foreign, but Japanese tourists as well. Same rule applies with restaurants. You can tell if a local spot is good by the number of local patrons.

It’s a very quiet town. Not much happening at night. Everyone was probably enjoying the onsen. ^^.

“Push button, down”. Would have been nice if clicking the watermark works. It does in a way, but doesn’t bring you to the right place. ^^

Only single lane roads here. Except for the speed limit, how fast you can go depends on the car in front.

There was a little park between the resort I stayed in and the neighbouring resort.

This was where I stayed. Lake Toya Hot Spring Toya Sun Palace. Long name isn’t it. ^^. Besides the nice and hot onsen, they also have a huge indoor pool area. Great for family pool outings. Did I mention open-air onsens? There is an introductory video here. Check out the pool area and the outdoor onsen. Although the video is in Japanese and a little over a minute, watching it is enough to get a good idea of what to expect when you get there.

A five minute walk from the hotel brings you to the main town area. Nothing much open this late at night, but.. late night ramen anyone?

The only other popular store this late at night is 7-11! In Tokyo, we often take our local convenience stores for granted. Although some prefer to drive, most are within walking distance. In low density areas, people usually drive to conbinis.

Very children friendly.

You know, I’ve been thinking. On a flat road, if we were to use a “bouncing car”, we would be able to take some pretty nice headlight sine waves. ^^.

Along the next road, I found a Yakitori place. Already had dinner. Had to give it a pass. Pink…

More ramen further up.

I decided to follow the car that turned in.

The ramen place looked very cosy from the outside.

This is what they have on the menu. Although I like the “soup of the natural salt” and “soup of the soybean” expressions, the description for oil noodle has to be my favourite, “There is no soup in noodle”. Reminds me of Yoda’s famous “Do or do not, there is no try”. It goes well with beer too.

Found this minivan. Must be pretty hard to reverse park. I wonder if the driver ever uses the mirror. ^^.

Fire hydrant.

Do you enjoy taking photos at night?

Related posts... maybe:

1. Early Morning at Lake Toya
2. Lake Chuzenji (中禅寺湖)
3. The night with the orange crescent
4. At night in the park
5. Okinawan Roads at Night

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Tags: hokkaido, night shots

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